by Nate Davis, USA TODAY Sports

by Nate Davis, USA TODAY Sports

By nearly all accounts, the New Orleans Saints' 2012 season was an unqualified disappointment that seemed destined for failure the moment it was marred by the NFL's bounty investigation and subsequent league-mandated penalties.

But one unnamed player is laying plenty of blame at the feet of defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who watched his unit surrender 7,042 yards (breaking the 1981 Baltimore Colts' record for season-long ineptitude by 249 yards).

According to the anonymous defender, Spagnuolo's personality was as problematic as his work on the whiteboard.

"He does have that good-guy persona, but he is a control freak and treats people like crap," is how the player described his boss to The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune's Larry Holder. "No patience and zero personality. Has a way of pissing players and our defensive coaches off with how he says and does things. (I) think it's even harder after having (former defensive coordinator) Gregg (Williams), who guys enjoyed."

The unit appears to have a solid pedigree with former Pro Bowlers Roman Harper, Will Smith and Jonathan Vilma and rising talents such as Curtis Lofton (who supports Spagnuolo), Cam Jordan and Malcolm Jenkins.

"It was his first year putting it in, and everything we went through, yeah, I'm a firm believer in the system," Lofton said. "I think it's a complicated system, but at the same time it has an answer for everything an offense does. We will be successful in the future. ... Yes, there is some thinking that goes into it before the play and during the play, but once you've got a grasp to it, I really think this is a great system."

Lofton's disgruntled compatriot clearly disagrees.

"To give up what we gave up can't be all talent. Look at where his units (have) been ranked before. I think one top 10?" said the player, who offered that Spagnuolo should be fired.

"Players have no say in anything," he added. "It was (a) complete opposite from before where it was a simple D that players had lot of control and say. We couldn't suggest (expletive). ... Nothing ever changed. It was his way only.

"Don't even get me started on lack (of) ability to adjust during games. Bad, bad, bad."

Spagnuolo has been on a bad run since famously devising the defensive game plan the 2007 New York Giants cited as instrumental in their upset of the previously unbeaten New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

But Spagnuolo hasn't experienced a playoff victory since and joined the Saints in 2012 after presiding over a three-year head-coaching tenure in St. Louis when the Rams went 10-38. After his departure from the Rams, he also was accused of heavy-handedness.

"I'm bothered you reported it. We're not the Jets who run to the media for everything," he told Holder.

"If (the player is) man enough to tell you, he should be man enough to put his name on it. And you should do the same."

Though the extent of the Saints' defensive struggles was certainly surprising, it's not unusual to see a team underperform when a drastically new playbook is installed, and Spagnuolo's philosophies and pressure packages contrast starkly with the gambling, blitz-happy Williams. And with suspensions hanging over Vilma and Smith for most of the season, distractions probably were inevitable.

Spagnuolo probably deserves one more year to get everyone on the same page ... and to know whom his unmuzzled detractor is.